Designing RDLC Report Layouts

To create an RDLC layout, you use Report Designer for Visual Studio or Report Builder for SQL Server. With RDLC layouts, you can add useful features to your report layouts, such as:

  • Links from a field on a report to either a page or another report.

  • Images and graphs.

  • The ability to toggle columns so that you can hide or display data.

  • The ability for users to interactively change the column on which data in the report is sorted.

    You generally display most data in the body of a report, and you use the header to display information before any dataset fields are displayed. For example, you can display a report title, company, and user information in the header of a report.

    For general information about Visual Studio Report Designer, see Report Designer (Visual Studio).

    For general information about SQL Server Report Builder, see Report Design View (Report Builder).

Working with SQL Server Report Builder or Visual Studio Report Designer

By default, Visual Studio Report Designer is used when you work with RDLC layouts if it is installed on the computer that is running the development environment. Otherwise, SQL Server Report Builder is used. SQL Server Report Builder is installed with the development environment.

If your computer is running both Visual Studio Report Designer and SQL Server Report Builder, you can configure the development environment to use SQL Server Report Builder when you design layouts instead of Visual Studio Report Designer.

Note

Starting with Dynamics NAV 2018 cumulative update 41, the Setup installation program installs Report Builder 15.0 for SQL Server 2019, instead of Report Builder for SQL Server 2016. If Report Builder for SQL Server 2016 is already installed on your computer it will be updated to Report Builder 15.0. If you install Dynamics NAV 2018 cumulative update 41 or later on a computer that is also running an older Dynamics NAV version, you won't be able to use Report Builder in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment for the older version.

To configure the development environment to use SQL Server Report Builder

  1. In the development environment, on the Tools menu, choose Options.

  2. Set the Use Report Builder field to Yes.

  3. Choose the OK button.

See Also

Understanding Headers and Footers
How to: Add and Identify Hidden Fields
How to: Add Totals in Visual Studio
How to: Apply Conditional Visibility Controls
How to: Conditionally Change a Row to Bold Font
How to: Change the Printed Values of Boolean Variables
How to: Create New Pages per Record
How to: Format Date Values
How to: Conditionally Display Filter Headers
How to: Print Report Header Information on Multiple Pages
How to: Use Option Strings in Multilanguage Implementations
How to: Reset Report Page Numbers
How to: Specify Rounding Precision
Troubleshooting: Visual Studio Report Designer provided metadata is not valid